


Black Ice

by Aoi_Hikari



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Drowning, F/M, Guro, Suicide, casual guro, consensual guro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:08:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26660419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoi_Hikari/pseuds/Aoi_Hikari
Summary: With such an attitude it wouldn’t surprise Asami if her children arranged a slow and painful death for themselves for no other reason but to laugh at their own unbearable agony.  Asami could totally imagine her children killing themselves just for fun one day, in fact the only reason they had not done so yet was exactly because life or death didn’t matter for them and only fun did, and so they didn’t seek for ways to die to then choose which would be the most fun, instead they simply sought for ways to have fun and so far just didn’t happen to also die along the way.
Relationships: Kagamine Len/Kagamine Rin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Black Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Чёрный лёд](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26930770) by [Aoi_Hikari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoi_Hikari/pseuds/Aoi_Hikari)



Asami didn’t want her children to turn into shut-ins. So when today again after coming home from school the twins went straight to their room seemingly intending to just stay there for the rest of the day, the woman decided it was time to do something about it.

“Just put it over there”, Len gestured towards the table without looking at his mother as she entered the room, as he assumed she had simply brought lunch. The boy was sitting on the edge of the bed with a gamepad in his hands, his eyes focused on the screen where some video game action was happening. He must have hurried to play this game so much he didn’t even undress properly after coming from school, still wearing his white shirt and yellow necktie. Rin was in a similar state of half-undress, only in her case it was her skirt that remained on her body. She was lying on the bed with a pillow under her chest, reading a book while absentmindedly fiddling Len’s dick with her feet.

“Hey, kids”, Asami said. “When was the last time you were outside?”

Len finally faced his mother to give her a confused look and discovered that not only she didn’t bring lunch, but she was also dressed in a nice dress as if planning to go outside.

“Like an hour ago?”

“Right, when we came from school”, Rin elaborated.

“Going to school and back doesn’t count”, Asami objected. “All you do lately is just sit in your room all day long. You need to breathe some fresh air from time to time”.

“But the weather is so dull”, Len gestured at the window.

“There isn’t any snow or wind”, Rin added.

So that was what it was all about, Asami realized. While it was not uncommon for children to enjoy playing in the rain or snow, these two took their love for harsh weather far beyond that, as for them it wasn’t about them playing, it was about them being played or better even toyed with by nature. After all, being the toys they got not to merely have the fun, but to actually be that fun themselves. And so whenever the boring adults would shield themselves with umbrellas and raincoats, the cheerful twins would rather strip naked so that nothing would stand in the way of enjoying the rage of the elements with every bit of their bodies. 

And whenever falling trees and flying debris compelled any sensible person to seek shelter, the excited twins would rush outside and throw themselves at the storm’s mercy with such eagerness which Asami wished they would display when throwing themselves into her own embrace. But their favorite were heavy snowstorms, as aimlessly running in the nude among all the twirling snow that made the air so opaque they couldn’t see the way, only relying for directions on the strong wind that pushed them around so hard it almost lifted them from the ground, made the twins feel like they themselves became nothing more than another pair of snowflakes, so tiny and unsubstantial almost as if they didn’t exist at all anymore, instead blending with the rest of the snow and disappearing into it.

The only time when the twins were even more delighted about the weather was during an especially massive hailstorm. It had happened during schoolday and while all the children had gotten excited about it, the teacher had insisted they should finish the lesson first, so most had reluctantly obliged. Not Rin and Len though, who weren’t willing to take any chance of missing such a phenomenon, so not only had they not waited for the end of the lesson, but not even wasted time taking the stairs down, instead just jumping out right through the third floor window. At least with all the other windows broken by the hail on that day anyway the school hadn’t made Asami pay for the broken glass.

Rin had landed on her right side, breaking a couple ribs and her hip, and Len had landed on his feet, breaking his left ankle and dislocating the right one, but also fracturing his right leg, so not being able to support himself on his feet he’d immediately fallen on his stomach. Both twins landing flat on the ground like that had painfully pushed the shards of broken glass even deeper into their bodies, making them realize that same glass has also torn their clothes apart, as in the hurry they hadn’t even taken the time to undress before jumping. But neither the sadly ruined clothes they knew they would be scolded for nor the amusing injuries which at any other times would be so fun to play with had concerned the twins at that moment when there was such a fierce hailstorm raging.

After quickly stripping out of the torn and bloodstained clothes the twins had crawled a bit away from the school building to a more open area and spread their arms and legs widely in a hope to maximize the area of their bodies to be hit by the hail. They’d also turned onto their backs to face the sky so they could see and welcome the hailstones mercilessly bombarding them, but from time to time would turn back onto their stomachs so that their backs got some attention too.

The twins had been enjoying the steady barrage of golf ball-sized hailstones, the bruises coloring their skin with spots of various shades of purple until there became so many they all merged together, turning each of the twins into just one big colorful bruise. But when the lesson was finally over the rest of the children had rushed outside to play in the hailstorm, merrily running around picking up hailstones and throwing them at each other. In the meanwhile, as the twins’ injuries hadn’t let them join the running, they’d just kept lying on the ground, now continuously pummeled not only by the hail, but also by other children running right on top of them, not noticing the twins half-buried under all the hail covering the ground, or maybe noticing, but having too much fun to bother to step around them, resulting in their bodies getting additionally decorated by a layer of shoeprints on top of even more bruises.

But as amusing as being beaten into pulp by both nature and the crowd was, the real icing on the cake had been the occasional especially large hailstones, like a size of a grapefruit, which were not only heavier, but also reached a much larger velocity in their fall. According to the twins, getting hit by one of those among all the golf-ball sized ones had been like getting a ruthless punch from a boxer among a nice relaxing massage. One such punch had bestowed upon Len a few broken ribs of his own, and another even revealed Rin’s early pregnancy by hitting her right in the womb and aborting it.

At first Asami hadn’t understood the reason behind the overwhelming delight with which the twins told her how they discovered the bloody lump pouring out of Rin’s vagina to actually be a fetus, of which Len, of course, had assumed he was the father. Were they happy to have a child? But it wouldn’t make sense if the child was already dead. Were they happy to get rid of it? But it wouldn’t make sense either because they hadn’t known they had it. But the twins had then explained that they’d just found it irresistibly amusing that it had been the child’s death that proved it had ever been alive in the first place. Confirming one’s existence by not existing had been, to the twins, the greatest imaginable paradox, which is in turn the greatest form of humor.

It was at that moment that Asami had realized she has become one of those adults she herself had used to find unbearably boring. The reason she failed to find the fun in the unexpected abortion was because she wouldn’t even seek for it, while for a child it was just natural to derive fun from literally everything. Especially so for this particular pair of overly playful twins, it seemed that as far as they were concerned the whole world was but the ultimate playground, where everything was a toy to play with, even the twins themselves, their own bodies, their life and death, their very existence, all was meant for the only purpose of fun. 

With such an attitude it wouldn’t surprise Asami if her children arranged a slow and painful death for themselves for no other reason but to laugh at their own unbearable agony. Asami could totally imagine her children killing themselves just for fun one day, in fact the only reason they had not done so yet was exactly because life or death didn’t matter for them and only fun did, and so they didn’t seek for ways to die to then choose which would be the most fun, instead they simply sought for ways to have fun and so far just didn’t happen to also die along the way.

So now looking at the screen Asami could see that even the game Len was now playing involved flying in a wingsuit through a tornado that lifted up all sorts of junk from the ground. And while Asami couldn’t see what book Rin was reading, it too without a doubt was far more engaging than a simple walk in such a calm weather as established lately. No wonder the twins prefered to stay in their room these days.

“Okay, then how about we go to the lake?” Asami concluded. “You swim under the ice anyway, so the weather shouldn’t matter.”

“But the book’s just getting interesting,” Rin replied.

“Your book isn’t going anywhere, you can always finish it later,” Asami noted, and before Len could chime in added: “Same goes for the game. Save it, get dressed properly and let’s go.”

“Fine, fine,” Len gave up, “can I at least cum first?”

“That you can,” Asami agreed. “I’ll wait downstairs then.”

As Asami left the room, Rin turned around, positioning herself in a way that let her take Len’s dick in her mouth while still reading her book.

“Ah,” she sighed between licks, “I haven’t closed the book yet, and I already can’t wait to get back to it.”

“Same here,” Len admitted, reluctantly shutting down his game, but then seeing how it was saving his progress suddenly gave him an idea: “Hey, you know what? We should drown ourselves in that lake!”

“We should,” Rin casually agreed, using her hands on Len’s dick while her mouth was busy talking. “Snowstorm or not, the resuscitation game never gets old”.

“No, I don’t mean taking turns drowning and resuscitating each other like usual,” Len specified, putting his gamepad aside and focusing on the sensation of Rin pleasuring his dick. “I mean drown for good, like, have both of us take a full breath of water together and have no one to save us, making sure we actually die”.

“Ah, a plain old suicide”, Rin concluded tonelessly, as she idly turned a page of her book. “Sure can do, but what would be the fun point?” she wondered. “It sounds so simple and easy that… why even bother?”

“It’s not about being hard to do”, Len answered. “Quite the contrary, in fact, the whole point is how simple and easy it is”.

“And that is supposed to be entertaining because?..” Rin got a bit more curious but still hadn't caught Len’s meaning.

“Well, think of what mom has said”, he pointed out.

“What exactly?” Rin gave it a thought. “Oh, wait, you mean the part where we need to breathe fresh air from time to time?” she guessed. “But instead we can breathe water just one time and then we’ll never need to breathe any air again,” Rin continued with growing excitement, which manifested in her hands fastening their work on Len’s dick. “Yeah, that’s pretty clever!” she approved.

“Too clever for me… ah... to come up with it,” Len admitted while pushing Rin’s head deeper onto his dick, as he felt he was ready to cum.

“Mhm?” Rin raised her eyebrow in an obvious question as the dick deep in her mouth prevented her from speaking.

“I meant the part where… ah... our book and game won’t go anywhere...” Len explained through hard breathing as he finally reached his orgasm. “And that we can always… ah… finish them later…”

“Ha-ha, cough, cough...” Rin’s laughter choked at the stream of semen hitting her throat. “So the book and game may not go anywhere”, she said in fascination after swallowing the cum, “but we totally can!”

“Exactly”, Len confirmed, gently pushing Rin aside to get up from the bed. “I thought how we won’t get to ‘always finish them later’ if we finish ourselves first… but that’s not as good as your idea with the air, is it? Too obvious to be a clever joke.”

“You’re right, it’s not as good”, Rin agreed. “It’s so much better!”

“It is?” Len asked in surprise as he was getting dressed.

“Of course,” Rin confirmed. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t care less if I need to breathe air or not. That’s something my lungs do on a reflex anyway. So that might have been a clever response to mom’s grumbling, but not much fun for our own selves. This book on the other hand is really engaging and there’s nothing I’d love more than to know what happens next. And you feel the same about your game, right? So the idea of killing ourselves for the sole purpose of never being able to finish those… ha-ha-ha,” Rin couldn't help but just burst into laughter half-sentence. “Ah, this must really be the silliest reason to kill oneself for”, she had to wipe her eyes from tears of heavy laughter.

“Told you yours was more clever,” Len pouted, throwing Rin’s clothes at her so she could get dressed too.

“Who cares if it’s clever?” Rin replied, catching the clothes. “Clever is boring, silly is where the fun is!”

“Then should I go with ‘So how can we finish our book and game now, huh?’ in the suicide note?” Len asked, as he took a pen and a piece of paper. “Or should I add a part about breathing fresh air too?”

“No, don’t,” Rin shook her head both to complement her answer and to push it through the top she was putting on. “And I mean don’t write anything at all.”

“But then how can we make sure if mom gets the joke behind our death?”

“Well, see, we don’t,” Rin giggled, lively leaping up from the bed after getting dressed. “That would only be fitting, wouldn’t it?”

“Fitting?” Len looked confused for a moment.

“With the whole joke”, Rin explained, “since it's all about us not getting to finish things, let's leave ourselves no way of knowing how the very joke itself ends either.”

“Wow!” Len uttered, admiring the arising paradox of how the enjoyment of the joke was born from not getting to enjoy it. “Are you sure it’s still utter silliness and not greatest genius?” he asked.

“Maybe the two are one and the same,” Rin concluded. “Just like us, twins, right?”

“Use it as a bookmark then”, Len suggested, giving her the paper he left blank. “Books don’t save themselves like games do”.

“Great thinking!” Rin commended, as she carefully folded the paper to mark exactly the line she had stopped at. “After all, I do want to return to my book as soon as I have a chance… just won’t be alive to actually have it, tee-hee-hee!”

When the twins dressed up and came down to their mother, she couldn’t help but notice their beaming smiles.

“See”, she said. “We haven’t left the house yet and you’re already gleaming with anticipation. And you didn’t want to go!”

Instead of a response the twins only giggled, exchanging sly glances with each other.

“Thought up some new amusement again”, Asami guessed. “What is it this time? Will you, Rin, stuff your pussy full of icicles? Or will you, Len, get your dick stuck to metal?”

The children lost their breath from the overwhelming realization, as they exchanged glances once more to confirm they were both thinking the same thing. While the goal of their upcoming suicide was only to become unable to finish one particular book and one particular game, those would hardly be the only things they would never get a chance to experience. In fact, it would be the rest of their whole lives with all and every bit of fun they would have ever had that would now never happen. Even mom’s suggestions right now sounded quite tempting so that the twins immediately felt the urge to try them out, and if she, an adult, managed to come up with something so fun out of the top of her head, then how many more varying and irresistible amusements could they invent on their own throughout their life. Without a doubt they were awaited by countless new ways of having fun, a lot that they always wanted to experience, but just didn’t get around to so far, and by orders of magnitude more which they never even knew existed.

And now they never would! Not because of some insuperable external circumstances, but only because they themselves were going to make it that way. There was nothing forcing Rin and Len to go through with their suicide, at any point they could easily abandon that idea and just go on with their lives that they had no doubt would be full of fun and joy. Both knew for certain that if they were to do so they would never regret not killing themselves today, rather they were positively confident that were they to stop right now they would be sincerely happy about making such a decision and endlessly grateful to their today’s selves for each moment of being alive. And with all of that in mind, just how fun it would be to actually drown themselves to death for the sole purpose of making sure none of that would ever happen!

The twins could only contain their laughter at that thought because they’ve just realized they haven’t made a single breath after mom’s question and desperately needed to remember how to breathe before they could produce any response.

“Wow, what wonderful ideas!” Rin finally said with all honesty.

“Can’t wait to try them out”, Len agreed from the bottom of his heart.

“Only maybe, like, next time?” Rin suggested with a wink at her brother.

“Right, next time”, he smirked back. “For today we have something even better in mind”.

“But we won’t tell because it’s a secret”, Rin added.

“You’ll see for yourself”, Len promised.

“Or maybe you won’t”, Rin smiled slyly.

And then the twins looked deep into each other’s eyes and synchronously thought, almost jumping with delight: “But we will certainly not get to see anything anymore!”

All the way to the lake the twins couldn’t contain their glee, one second shooting ahead, the next running in circles around their mother, but never settling for just walking at a leisurely pace, almost as if the weather wasn’t dead calm, but their favourite snowstorm instead. Trying to at least somewhat reign the kids in, Asami decided to occupy them with a conversation.

“So how’s it going in school?” she asked.

“Miku pulled such a stunt today again, this time on the PE lesson”, Rin replied.

“Yeah, we were practicing batting”, Len started the story. “But Miku found a better use for the bat”.

“She set it vertically on the floor right under her pussy”, Rin continued.

“And then lowered herself onto it until she did a full cross split”, Len concluded.

“She even walked with that thing inside of her for the rest of the day”, Rin added.

“I wonder just how capacious the insides of her pussy are?” Len said.

“And what will she come up with next time?” Rin gave a wink to her brother.

“Indeed”, Len winked back. “It’s impossible to predict what can enter her mind”.

“We will have to see it for ourselves”, Rin said.

“I’m totally looking forward to it”, Len agreed.

“The key is to not to skip school”, Rin pointed out, unable to contain a smile.

“Indeed, all the best stuff always happens when we’re not around”, Len confirmed.

And then the twins burst into merry laughter.

“But what about the studies?” Asami asked. “Do you at least properly do your homework?”

“Of course we do”, Rin assured.

“Haven’t done yet today though”, Len admitted.

“But it’s not going anywhere”, Rin chuckled.

“Right”, Len agreed. “We can always do it after the walk”.

“And breathing some fresh air would make our brains function better too”, Rin said.

“Oh, that’s a clever thought!” Len noted. “The air must already be helping”.

Of course the twins said that while anticipating how they were going to breathe some fresh water soon in order to make their brains stop functioning forever. Even these very thoughts that brought them so much fun right now would not remain, and thus neither would the fun. But that was exactly why it was so fun!

“Study well and then I might buy you a VR set”, Asami promised.

“Really?” Len’s eyes lit up. “I will finally get to experience the fabled full immersion?”

“Hey, a VR is for Len, but what for me?” Rin asked.

“And what would you like?” Asami asked.

Rin lost her breath for a moment. Was this for real?

“A violin!” Rin almost whispered. “I always wanted to learn to play violin!”

“A violin it is then”, Asami agreed. “Just study well”.

Unable to contain her emotions Rin threw herself at her brother and took his hands into hers, after which the twins broke into a childish dance around each other, casting away their shoes in the process so that they could better enjoy the feeling of cold snow under their bare feet. There was no need for words as they could clearly see the delight in each other’s shining eyes. For Len becoming so absorbed by a virtual world he could forget about the real one existing, and for Rin learning to make the violin produce it’s elegant and graceful music she loved so much by her own self, these were the twins’ most cherished dreams. Dreams that always seemed to be something distant and uncertain… suddenly became more close and real than the twins ever imagined!

After all, the twins never had problems with studying, so the condition mom made was merely a formality, and getting their VR set and violin was pretty much a done deal. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if mom had actually already bought the VR set for Len and hid it somewhere, waiting for a suitable occasion to gift it. And the violin? It’s not like it was the first time Rin mentioned her dream of mastering that instrument, so mom might have just pretended to ask her what she wanted, already knowing exactly what the answer would be. Indeed, mom agreed so easily and quickly as if she didn’t even need any time to process Rin’s words. So for all she knew, the fulfillment of her dream was already waiting right at home next to Len’s. And what a perfect timing to learn about it, just before they were going to kill themselves!

Mere moments ago these longed for items weren’t on the twins’ minds at all, as they were too preoccupied thinking of all the more immediate and tangible fun their suicide would prevent them from experiencing. But in just a few spoken lines the abstract dreams have turned into certain reality, overwhelming the twins with anticipation for all the joy and happiness that was practically within arm’s reach. In Len’s eyes Rin could see the thrill of putting on the VR set and by doing so travelling into a strange virtual world which would be not just before him but all around him, waiting to be explored and conquered. In Rin’s eyes Len could see the elation of taking the violin in her hands and drawing the bow across the strings to produce music of such heavenly beauty that she wouldn’t even be producing it anymore, but get captured by it and become a medium for the music to flow through from the world of ideas into the material one. Overcome with genuine excitement for the upcoming gifts the twins hugged each other warmly, and softly whispered into each other’s ears in unison:

“You won’t get to see a single glimpse”. “You won’t get to play a single note”.

There was no mockery in their confluent voices, not even friendly teasing, but only genuine heartfelt love, happiness for each other and for each other’s happiness for each other, joy of bringing each other joy with these so simple yet so beautiful words that might have not told them anything each of the twins hadn’t already figured out by themselves but were still so sweet to hear vocalized, making everything feel so much more real. Saying it aloud made the meaning of dying just before their dreams would have become fulfilled truly sink in and through their tight embrace the twins could feel each other’s hearts synchronously skip a beat before bursting in such irrepressible laughter that they fell down and their dance turned into rolling around in the snow.

“Wow, I didn’t expect these gifts would make you this much excited”, their mother said, “you know, if you really can’t wait to have them, we can always go to the lake some other day…”

The twins stopped their chaotic motion in an instant and looked into each other’s eyes once more. They were right, the gifts really were already waiting for them at home. They just had to turn back and mom would give them their VR set and violin right away. There was literally nothing standing in the way of the greatest joy they could possibly imagine — the fulfillment of their most longed for and cherished dreams. No hiding those already bought presents anymore, no waiting under pretence they had to earn them with good grades. The twins were free to just come and take what was practically already theirs. Just how silly it would be to miss this chance… right?

“Lake! Lake! We’re going to the lake!” the twins replied in discord, as if trying to shout not just ahead of each other, but ahead of their own selves, of their earnest desire to immediately rush back home and seize their presents which they were afraid could escape their lips.

“Oh… okay”, Asami uttered in confusion. “I guess the presents will have to wait a little longer.”

Yes, the twins thought, wait just a little longer. Wait until they dive into the lake, wait until they fill their lungs with water, wait until their hearts come to a full stop and their brains cease all function. Wait until both of the twins are completely and irreversibly dead. And then!.. And then they can be given all the presents, all the pleasures, all the joys and delights in the world and then some... Only wait just a little longer until they make sure they would not be around to enjoy any of those!

As the lake got within sight, the twins fully succumbed to their delight and rushed towards it ahead of their mother, casting off their clothes on the way. But upon reaching the shore they have suddenly stopped. Instead of the usual vast white surface the unclad twins were met by an equally vast, but black one. It took the twins a couple of seconds to realize that the surface itself was actually transparent, and the blackness came from water underneath.

“What a transparent ice!” 

“I never thought it could be like that”, Len agreed.

“Can you imagine how many more amazing things we have never seen?” Rin smiled with delight.

“And never will!” Len supported her mood.

“All just for one silly little joke.”

“One that we won’t even get to see through.”

“And that itself makes it an even better joke”, Rin continued.

“Because this one is on ourselves.”

“And that’s the best kind of joke”, Rin finished.

“Enjoying the view?” asked Asami who has finally caught up to her kids.

The twins looked back at their mother worriedly, wondering if she overheard them, but it seemed like she hadn’t. In her hands she held the children’s clothes that she picked up on the way, and the twins couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that it was in vain, as they would never need any of those again. No, forget the clothes — looking back at their mother like this, on the very shore of the lake from which they did not intend to return, made the twins realize it was the last time they were seeing her. That sudden thought struck them like lightning, sending chills down their spines like no cold ever could. Overcome with delight the twins enthusiastically leaped upon their mother in one swift motion, almost knocking her off her feet as they lovingly clung to her with their naked bodies in tight embrace and, cutely raising themselves on tiptoes, synchronously kissed her gently on both cheeks.

“Whoa, what’s gotten into you?” Asami laughed somewhat taken aback, but enjoying the attention. Hugging her children back she looked down onto their happy identical faces and saw their eyes shining with most genuine love and gratitude.

“Who knew your love could be bought with a couple of presents”, Asami chuckled jokingly, as she patted the children’s heads.

But the VR set and violin weren’t on the twins’ minds right now, instead they were thinking of a much greater present, the greatest of them all — the gift of life. They were infinitely grateful to their mother for giving them birth and by that granting a chance to experience all of the joys and pleasures the world was filled with, a chance that was so fun to use to make sure they would never experience anything ever again. For as much as the whole point of killing themselves was not to exist, it was only possible because they existed in the first place, which was an amusing paradox all in itself. But while giving them birth was a necessary requirement for the twins to be able to commit suicide, to think of it, it was also mom that gave them the idea to actually do so by dropping those words about finishing their book and game, without which it might have just never occured to them how fun intentionally denying themselves such an option would be. So all of the delight that the anticipation of their upcoming death was filling them with was fully thanks to their mother.

“Thank you for bringing us to this lake”, Rin said with all sincerity.

“That was such an excellent idea”, Len added from his heart.

“You’re my beloved binary sunshines”, mom melted under her children’s affection and gave each a peck on their forehead. “As long as you’re having fun.”

“Oh, it’s going to be fun alright”, the twins thought, “but we won’t be having any of it!”

“Say, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it...” Rin started, as she sofly stepped back from the embrace.

“Right!” Len saw where Rin was going as he followed suit. “Does it still make a sound?”

“Huh?” Asami had no idea where that came from, but then again the twins always came up with crazy ideas out of nowhere. “Well, of course it would”, she answered. “Sound is an intrinsic property of the falling tree, not of someone hearing it”.

The twins smiled as they shared another sly glance, as for them it meant that their death was going to be fun even if they wouldn't be around to experience that fun for themselves… In fact, even if their mom or nobody in the entire world would ever get the joke, that won’t change the intrinsic property of that joke to be fun.

“Well, isn’t that just great?” Rin concluded.

“Objective reality rules!” Len agreed.

“You two are as unfathomable as ever”, Asami sighed. “Okay, falling trees aside, while you play at the lake I’ll go buy something to eat for tonight. Is there something in particular you would like?”

The twins laughed. What a great question it was! Making them look forward to the dinner they wouldn’t get to attend, imagining all the delicious dishes they wouldn’t get to enjoy, and even choosing them by themselves. Oh, what a wonderful feeling it was to decide what they wanted to taste while knowing that they won’t live to sink their teeth into any of that! A lot of appetizing options were flooding the twins’ minds, each more tempting than the other, but in the end, unable to single out just one, the twins had come to an even better solution.

“Surprise us!” Rin said. “Make it something unlike anything we’ve tried before”.

“And better than anything we’ve tried before”, Len added. “The best meal ever!”

“Wow, now that’s a task you’re giving me!” Asami laughed. “I’ll have to try my best then”.

It was a crazy task indeed, but the twins knew their mom was up for it because she would put all of her love into it. Using her knowledge of the twins’ taste, mom would surely be able to come up with something that would never have occured to the twins themselves, but that they would absolutely love once they try it. Without a shadow of a doubt for tonight’s dinner the twins would be awaited by a treat beyond their imagination that would taste so incredible they would be willing to give their lives for a single bite. And then how fun would it be to instead give their lives in order to not get any? Ah, the twins’ mouths were already watering in anticipation!

“Well then, I’ll be going”, Asami concluded. “Don’t go far from the lake so I can find you later”, she instructed them before walking away.

“Sure thing!” the twins promised.

“Indeed, we won’t be going anywhere”, Len laughed once mom was far enough. “And we’ll be gone forever!”

“Under such transparent ice mom will find us right away”, Rin joined the laugh. “And there will be no us anywhere to be found!”

“Can’t wait to see mom’s reaction when she returns and sees us dead”, Len anticipated. “Even better that being dead won’t let us see it, ha-ha-ha!”

“But you know what’s even more better?” Rin added. “The very reason why mom’s reaction would be so fun to see in the first place is because we’ll be dead!”

“So in order to see it we’ll have to make sure we can’t?” Len realized. “Damn, that’s deep!”

“Speaking of deep…” Rin took Len’s hand in hers and gestured at the lake with her other hand. “Let’s go drown ourselves!”

“Yay!” Len rejoiced, raising their joined hands and the two dashed forward.

And like that hand in hand the children merrily ran further on top of the lake in search of a suitable icehole to dive into and never come back up. Even though the weather was far from a harsh snowstorm like they prefered, the cold air was still giving them pleasant goosebumps all over their naked bodies and the ice under their feet was gently nibbling at their soles. But the warmer weather also meant that the ice was more slippery than the twins were used to, so maybe because of that, or maybe because they were too absorbed with delightful anticipation of their upcoming death, they slipped. Or rather Rin slipped first, but as she was holding Len’s hand she instinctively pulled it, trying to steady herself, but since he was on the same ice he just slipped too and because of Rin’s pull ended up landing on his back before her, cushioning her own fall. The impulse of Rin landing on top of him even made Len slide along the ice for a short distance, further intensifying its cold bite all over his bare skin, nicely contrasted by Rin’s warmth pressing into him from above.

“Whoa”, Len laughed, “you sure mastered the art of falling”.

“Yeah”, Rin joined the laugh, raising her head a bit so she could look into Len’s eyes, “you make a great safety bag”.

“Oh!” Len’s eyes lit up. “That gives me so many ideas! Mainly of the ‘being crushed’ sort”.

“Sounds great!” Rin supported his enthusiasm. “Even more fun things we’ll never get to try out”.

“Indeed,” Len agreed. “Like we could…”

“Wait”, Rin put a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell me”.

“Why?” Len asked puzzled, but the next moment realized: “Ah, it’s so that you would never even know what awesome things you’re going to miss!”.

“Exactly”, Rin confirmed. “Learning about them would be fun in itself, wouldn’t it?”

“Rin, you’re a genius!” Len said in sincere admiration.

“Oh, want something even more genius?” Rin asked, rolling off from Len to his side, so that now they were laying in parallel without touching each other.

“What do you have in mind?” Len asked with enthusiastic interest.

“So you want to finish that game you were playing, right?” Rin apparently started from afar.

“You even ask!” Len answered. “It’s just incredible! And just to think how much more fun it would be in VR! Not to even mention all the games made specifically for VR from the start which I can’t even imagine what they’re like before I have the set. That’s something I just have to see with my own eyes!”

“And it’s the same for me”, Rin agreed, smiling at seeing the earnest passion in his eyes. “The book I was reading is so interesting, the plot is so intriguing, I absolutely have to see where it goes. And the violin, ah, the violin, its sounds are truly magical, so in a sense learning to play it is like becoming a magical girl”, Rin said with a dreamy voice. “How much I would love that is just beyond words!”

“So what are you trying to say?” Len asked in confusion. “Because you almost sound like you don’t want us to kill ourselves after all”.

“What?” Rin was taken aback by such a proposition. “No, that’s exactly why we should do it!” she adamantly insisted. “I was just leading to the point that focusing our thoughts on all the fun we wouldn’t get, we have missed something much more important… the most important”.

“What can possibly be more important than fun?” Len chuckled skeptically.

“That we have each other”, Rin explained, looking straight into Len’s eyes. “And now we won’t”, she spoke in a deliberately soft and calm voice.

They will not… have each other… Such a revelation totally blew Len’s mind and he had to take a second to gather it back together and properly process the idea. They were a pair of twins, how was it possible for them not to have each other? That was such an absurd concept, contradicting their whole nature as twins. Just to think that they were killing not just themselves, but their very togetherness, which always felt more fundamental than anything in the world… that was so unthinkable, so surreal, so delightful!

“See, I’ll never have you anymore”, Rin whispered almost as if afraid that speaking loudly would wake her into a reality where this wasn’t happening.

“And I’ll never have you”, Len understood, speaking in an equally low voice as realization of all the implications took his breath away.

“We’ll never be together again”, Rin uttered a bit louder, as her excitement grew stronger.

“We’ll never be at all”, Len continued, as if the twins were caught by a whirlpool of reinforcing each other’s delight.

“We’ll never share another kiss,” Rin said breathily, as her eyes were expressing the most desperate desire to press her lips against her brother’s that she ever felt, yet despite how close they were, she made no attempts to act on it. But she didn’t try to suppress the desire, quite the contrary, she let it spread over every cell of her body and conquer her soul. And the more that desire started to define her, the more fun it was to make sure she would never have it fulfilled.

“Never hug each other,” Lin replied in manner, his return gaze starkly expressing similar lust that swept over him to grab Rin’s body in one last most loving embrace, but exactly because of how unbearable that longing was, he kept lying perfectly still, only smiling widely.

“Or hold hands,” Rin continued, reaching for her brother’s hand.

“What the?!” Len jerked his hand away a moment before Rin would touch it.

“Just kidding”, Rin laughed, her playful eyes telling she knew he would remove his hand.

“Oh”, Len realized, “we’ll also never play another loving prank on each other”.

“We won’t even love each other anymore”, Rin pointed out.

“Because there won’t exist any us to be capable of love”, Len concluded the thought.

“Ah, I never contemplated just how much joy there is in simply being alive,” Rin said dreamily. “Now I want to live more than ever!”

“So just how fun it will be to kill ourselves while having such an earnest desire to live!” Len continued Rin’s obvious thought.

“Not just while”, Rin corrected. “But exactly out of that very desire!”

“It will be the best laugh ever!” Len said.

“Only how would we laugh when we’re dead?” Rin chuckled.

“We won’t”, Len admitted. “We’ll never get to actually have our greatest laugh!”

“And that’s exactly what makes it so great!” Rin concluded.

“Ah, I can’t wait for it anymore”, Len said, finally getting up from the ice. “Let’s go drown ourselves already!”

“Hold on a second”, Rin almost grabbed his hand out of habit, but stopped herself in time.

“Why?” Len looked back at his sister with a puzzled gaze.

Did she not feel the same as he did? How precious and irreplaceable every moment of life was, how sweet was every breath of fresh air, how welcome every beat of heart, how delightful every thought for being able to think it. How could Rin not hurry to kill herself to make sure there would remain as few of these joyous moments as possible? If only the twins could, they should have just foregone the whole drowning process and just will their hearts to stop and drop dead right away. And, as Len saw, Rin’s eyes were indeed burning with the same flaming passion for life as his own reflected in them, a fire so strong there could be nothing more fun than extinguishing it. Or could there? Because the only thing that could make Rin postpone their suicide was adding even more fun to it. And if that was the case, Len was willing to stop for a moment to hear her out.

“That black ice gave me an idea”, Rin said. “You should dive first and float up flat against the ice with your face up”.

“And then what?” Len asked intrigued.

“Then you’ll see for yourself”, Rin smiled slyly.

“Or maybe I won’t?” Len guessed with a growing grin.

“Or maybe you won’t”, Rin chuckled.

Assured by Rin’s nod that she had nothing more to say, Len looked around for a fitting icehole and upon spotting one dashed towards it and without stopping jumped straight into the cold water, instantly submerging his whole body all the way along with the head. Such a sudden influx of cold sent his organism into a shock, heart rate spiking like crazy and lungs spasming to gasp for air. Given how Len couldn’t wait to drown himself, this time he might as well acted on that reflex, but knowing Rin had something else in mind he resurfaced and took a proper breath.

Len felt incredibly refreshed as the cold made his body shiver like a jolt of electricity, like if he was asleep all the day and only now properly woke up. All of his sensations sharpened and the world became almost unrealistically vivid. Len looked around with his enhanced vision, avidly taking in every bit of the scenery. The ice on the surface of the lake, which looked most unusual today with its mirroresque blackness, but was as always slippery and thin, making it the most fun surface to run on, constantly falling onto or under it. The snow covering the shores, which made both great projectiles for games and a handily available snack to fill the bellies without the need to come home every time their stomachs grumbled. The sky, which was now so deceptively calm, as if it never produced those deadly cyclones that created incomparable playgrounds by devastating entire cities to ruins. The woods in the distance with every living thing a playmate — from hornets, who would with wild fervor bestow their stings onto any dick shoved into their nest, to bears who would just as eagerly amuse any child looking to playwrestle by effortlessly tearing them to shreds with massive claws.

No matter where Len aimed his eyes, everything offered so much fun. However he went for such a thorough final look at the world not for the sake of taking the chance to enjoy the view one last time, but to imprint the carving he felt for that fun as deep as he could onto his mind. For both of the twins fun was the measure of everything in existence and the existence itself, nothing else mattered but fun. And now they were going to ensure they would never experience any more fun. All for the sake of that same fun. A moment of crystal clarity provided by the cold water shock led Len to a sudden realization.

“Rin!” he called for his sister.

“Any last words?” Rin suggested playfully, as if it was all just a game. And it was, just one where dying for real was a part of it, or rather the very point of the game.

“Our lives aren’t toys!” Len announced, his eyes shining with the discovery.

“What?” Rin asked in confusion. It certainly couldn’t be that after everything he was suddenly backing out?

“We are!” Len replied and submerged once more, clearly not intending to resurface ever again.

Rin didn’t need more explanation though. They were twins after all, so it wasn’t hard for her to understand exactly what Len meant just by those words. It was when they played blind man’s buff on the unguarded roof of a skyscraper or tag at an old uncleared minefield, that they were toying with their lives. But now the twins were far beyond that.

They weren’t just carefreely throwing their lives away, they were deliberately killing themselves, and more than that, they were doing so because of how much they wanted to live. This wasn’t just as plain as toying with their lives anymore, not even toying with their desire to live, as that would imply such a desire sas just a part of themselves, almost a separable one. But it was simply not true. It was them, Rin and Len, who wanted to live, it was them who dreamed of playing a violin and immersing in virtual reality, it was them who looked forward to having all the countless new fun experiences the life had in store for them. It was not some abstract desire that desperately yearned for all of that, but them themselves. 

And so they weren’t toying with their desires or their instincts or their subconscious or their anything. They were toying with nothing more and nothing less than themselves. They were both the toys and the ones toying. They got both types of fun simultaneously, and then that fun looped back onto itself in an endless cycle, which was, of course, going to end along with themselves, and in the first place that endless cycle only existed because the twins were going to end themselves and thus the cycle…

Rin couldn’t even laugh anymore. She realized what that clarity in Len’s eyes was. It wasn’t just the shock from the cold water. Rin hasn't submerged yet, but now felt it too. It was without a doubt a state known as enlightenment. Rin never imagined what it can be like, but now that she felt it, she couldn’t confuse it with anything. Something clicked and the puzzle she never knew was disassembled suddenly became put together, and now everything made sense in a way she could have never imagined. Such a plain reaction as laughter couldn’t possibly do this emotion justice. It was nothing like joy or mirth or even delight and at the same time it was all of them together and more. It was the purest form of bliss, so exalted it transcended any notion of physical expression. Rin’s face couldn’t become any happier anyway. But her heart was now singing. A love song to death.

No, not just death, but suicide. Killing oneself of one’s own will, which will one possesses only because they’re alive. Willing oneself to be dead so that one doesn’t have any will. Using one's life for the sake of dying. Devoting one’s existence to not existing. To be to not to be. A=!A. That was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most paradoxical paradox and thus the most fun form of fun possible.

No, it wasn’t even possible, because obviously someone who doesn’t exist can’t be having fun, and this impossibility was exactly what elevated this kind of fun onto an entirely different level from anything that was possible. It was the most pure, most genuine, most innocent kind of fun — a kind of fun that couldn’t be actually had. The ideal fun that existed all by itself, unsullied by being perceived. Oh how desperately Rin longed to get at least a tiny little glimpse of this transcendental fun, and how sincerely she hoped that she would absolutely not. She was praying from the bottom of her heart that there was no afterlife or any kind of immortal soul which would ruin the whole fun by letting her experience it. Ah, but then to whom was she praying? A delightful paradox once more!

Meanwhile, reveling in similar thoughts, Len followed Rin’s instructions. He swam a bit away from the icehole and then floated up flat against the ice. Just like from above he could see his own reflection on its surface, but since the other side wasn’t dark, he also saw clearly through it at the same time. The two pictures, one of his own exalted face, another of a clear crystal blue sky were superimposed onto each other. So was that what Rin wanted to show him — a montage created by the very nature of him among the heavens, perhaps symbolizing his death or maybe how elated he felt about it? No, in such a case there would be no reason for her not to accompany him. If she needed to stay behind it must mean she wanted to do something funny above the surface for him to see from under the ice.

Or could it be that she only wanted him to think that way, while she would sneak to him from below and suddenly tickle him, making him uncontrollably laugh under water, effectively making him die from laughter? That would certainly be a fun way to die, but then Rin would have to touch him, which was something both of the twins were longing for too much to allow it to happen.

Len also couldn’t rule out the possibility that Rin wouldn't actually do anything about him and just go drown herself somewhere else in the lake, while the whole fun of her suggestion consisted in making him anticipate that fun only for it to never come. In such a case Len would make his best to last as long as possible no matter how much he couldn’t wait for his own death, if only to play along, even more so knowing that if that was indeed her plan she would die without ever knowing if he played along or not. Well, whatever was on Rin’s mind, Len had no doubt it was going to be hilarious regardless of if either of them would get to experience that fun for themselves.

But although Len was prepared to die before seeing his sister’s plan in action, he didn’t have to wait that long. It only took a minute for Rin to recollect herself after being lost in her thoughts over Len’s last words and another one to find him from above the surface. With how much time the twins used to spend in this lake, a couple of minutes without air wasn’t nearly enough to bother Len. Surely his lungs burned longing for a new supply of oxygen, but as far as Len was concerned it was a welcome sensation to spice up the almost sleep-inducing coziness of freezing water sapping the heat out through every inch of his fully submerged skin. This fun of pushing their bodies beyond the limits was why the twins loved playing underwater so much in the first place.

But that was not what they were here for today. This time they weren’t just fooling around by putting themselves through another improved and extended set of unsurvivable conditions to see if they can endure against all common sense. This time they were going to defy common sense in a much more fundamental and thus much more entertaining way — by deliberately and purposefully killing themselves. Not testing the latent potential of the human organism awakening in extreme situations, not proving the power of their love by reviving each other’s breathless bodies, and not ignoring the certain death which just happened to be a part of their play, but going right after that death as a goal all in itself. A suicide in its purest form. Nothing more and nothing less.

Except, of course, for that one last thing Rin came up with. Len looked up at her from under the ice. She was standing right above, giving him a perfect view on her pussy. Len wondered if she was planning to pee on him, making the coveted stream pour right into his face only to spray against the ice a moment before reaching it. It would be really fun to die by choking with Rin’s urine, so Len would desperately try to breathe it in… only for the merciless water of the lake to fill his lungs instead, denying him the very fun of dying in a fun way… which would in turn make it even more fun!

Len was already licking his lips in anticipation of the salty taste he wouldn’t get to feel, but suddenly realized that after his death Rin wouldn’t have a way to mirror it for her own. And as much as the two derived fun from the idea that the unbreakable bond between them would become broken by the lack of themselves to be bonded, that applied only after dying, and as long as they were alive they were still adamantly a pair of twins. So whatever idea was on Rin’s mind, it couldn’t be anything that wouldn’t work for herself the same way. But what could possibly work the same after Len’s death?

Apparently ‘mirror’ was the keyword. Rin laid down onto the ice, aligning her position to perfectly match Len’s, her face right before his, her image merging with his own reflection. “Wow…” he exhaled the last air from his lungs in fascination. The twins were so close, separated by some mere inch of ice so transparent it almost wasn’t there, and the same ice that separated them also brought them more together than ever by making them occupy literally the same space in the reflection, as if they weren’t even two of the same, but one single being to begin with, and yet again that very same ice that brought them so much together also separated them more then ever, making it impossible for them to touch, to hug, to feel each other ever ever again.

Of course, to properly mirror it later Rin would have to drag his body out of the water with her hands, however at that point it would only be a lifeless corpse, not Len himself, but just an inanimate object bearing his image, so it wouldn’t necessarily count. Although if she really wanted no compromises Rin could simply go and ask someone else to handle Len’s remains: there weren’t a lot of people at the lake today, but surely among the few who were a willing helper could be found, perhaps in return for good old sex? They could even have their way with Rin after her death, or with Len for that matter.

After all, the twins’ favorite kinds of fun have always been those that made them feel more like toys than like players, to actually be the fun itself rather than merely having it. And dying would let them go even further in that play and really be toys instead of only getting to feel like ones. In fact, they wouldn’t get to feel anything anymore, becoming able solely to be enjoyed and never to enjoy. Just the way they enjoyed it!

But whether or not Rin was going to use outside help to drag his dead body out of water, Len figured that her plan was to place it on top of the ice and then float up right under it like he was doing now. She wouldn’t get exactly the same experience, but while he got to dwell on not getting to witness Rin’s death, she could in turn dwell on not getting to see him enjoying it. So both had equally fun if reversed things to miss out, which was a kind of mirroring by itself.

Among all these thoughts Len didn’t notice how much time had passed, but suddenly he felt like his lungs wouldn’t last much longer. Any second the reflex to take a breath would overpower the reflex not to do it underwater and then the only way for him to survive would be if Rin saved and revived him. But looking at her through the ice Len could see that she realized his situation and was smiling at him in reassurance that this time she was absolutely not going to do it. Len mirrored her smile to express his gratitude. Although he wanted to do so much more in his last moments. Rin too was desperate to hold onto her brother whose existence was so rapidly slipping away. But as the pair of twins pressed their bodies into each other, they only embraced the ice. As they put their palms against each other's, they only met the ice. As they reached for each other’s lips appetizingly blue from the cold, they only kissed the ice.

Ice!

O ice, the solid form of water that floats above it to defy all common sense, how can you be so black and so transparent, so kind to be our playmate, so harsh to take our lives, how can you fuse the two of us by separation and separate by fusing into one? O ice, the barrier connecting, if only you could know how much we wish to feel each other’s warmness, if only you could hear how pray we that we won’t: please let us die while desperately longing and leaving our dreams unmet forevermore. O ice, the greatest of all wonders, so glad we are just that you do exist, and so overdelighted knowing we will not, so grateful you are going to kill us, we’re singing you this heartfelt praising song.

Having his thoughts suddenly turn into a poem was the final straw. Len couldn’t take it anymore and just burst into laughter. Water flooded his lungs. Icy water that sent Len into hypothermia just by being all around him, and now it was freezing him from inside too. In a futile attempt to prolong it’s existence Len’s organism was rapidly shutting down except for the most vital parts: the lungs, the heart and the brain. Len’s lungs desperately spasmed to cough the water out only to at the very next moment even more desperately spasm to breathe it back in, too hungry for air to realize there wasn’t any around. Len’s heart frantically pushed the blood towards the lungs in search of oxygen, but it only found coldness to bring back to the heart which couldn’t help but redirect it to the one remaining functioning organ. Len’s brain, starving and freezing, was overtook with such an unrelenting desire to live that it was willing to take any most tiny chance, and so it was sending random impulses in hope of a lucky guess, making the body writhe around in panic.

Of course, given how many times Len had purposefully drowned himself before as a part of their revival play with Rin, he was well capable of calming himself down and just peacefully waiting to pass out. But all these involuntary contractions of the respiratory system to breathe in and out without restraint… weren’t they so much just like laughter? Even the way the agony sent his body into uncontrollable convulsions was not at all dissimilar to irrepressible laughter. And so he kept laughing. He saw Rin laughing too. Or was it his own reflection? His consciousness started slipping away, so it was hard to tell. Though why would he want to anyway? Fusing them into one was the whole point of this position. Rin was his reflection. The two of them were now one. So if that made them as close as possible, would becoming none make them impossibly close? After all, dividing by zero should give infinity. Did it even make any sense? Len didn’t know as he couldn’t think straight anymore. He only felt that his body kept laughing, so there must have been something fun? What was it again?

Ah, of course. Len remembered there was a fun videogame he was anticipating continuing. He vividly pictured how he would play it. How he would soar up in the skies in a wingsuit in the middle of a raging thunderstorm among all the debris, cars and even tanks flying around lifted by a mighty tornado, fighting off all the anti-air missiles, attack helicopters and jet fighters with only as much weapon as he could carry on himself, explosions filling the whole field of view non-stop. But surely the game was saving its best parts for the last. So if it was this great so far, just how much better it was going to become? Len couldn’t wait to see.

But of course better than any game was having a loving mother who would softly enter the room careful not to disturb Len’s immersion in playing and offer some new meal to him and his sister, who would of course be lying beside him absorbed in that book of hers that she so much wanted to finish. Mom promised something special, and he knew she would not disappoint, whatever it would be, the moment he would take a bite he would be immediately blown away with the taste. But what would that taste be? There was no point trying to imagine what it is like for something to be beyond imagination, so Len just had to wait for the dinner to find out.

And that dinner wouldn’t be the only present from mom. There was also the VR set. He imagined he wouldn’t be able to contain his excitement and impatiently seize the device out of mom’s grasp, hurrying to plug it in. Mom wouldn’t mind. She knew this was what he has always dreamed of. Even then, holding it in his own hands, he would find it hard to believe that his dream was coming true, until he gets to actually put it on, and then… he has heard a lot of what would happen then, that he would disappear from the room and find himself inside the game world, truly up in the air in the middle of all the violent elements and explosions, that it would all be the same as on the screen and yet entirely different, still obviously a rendered set of polygons, and at the same time all totally alive and real. But what did those words actually mean, what was the actual experience behind them? Today he would find it out!

However, being a twin, there was still one thing Len anticipated even more. When he would eventually be done playing with the VR set, he would make sure to look at his sister receiving her own present. What expression would she make when facing her dream coming true, how brightly the purest delight would shine in her eyes… seeing that would be priceless, better than any fun Len could possibly have for himself. As her twin brother he would be able to feel Rin’s elation when she takes the violin in her hands for the first time more acutely than any of his own emotions. The first time she would hit the strings with the bow… would create the most awful noise, naturally, but would nevertheless be absolutely magical. 

With practice Rin would learn to control that magic and before Len would notice she would be performing on a stage before hundreds of people, and the most beautiful melody he could not dare imagining would be flowing into our world through Rin, carrying her away and making her into a part of the music. It would last forever and still end too soon. The audience would burst into applause and Rin would bow before them, from her heart happy to be able to bring them such joy. But the one listener she cares for the most would be waiting behind the curtain, and finally Rin would head there finding it difficult to hide her impatience and as soon as she is unseen by the audience she would throw herself into Len’s arms. Just how wonderful it would be to give her a tight embrace and soak in her overflowing emotions, physically feeling her excited heartbeat!

Heartbeat…

While Len was relishing all the fun and joy the life ahead had in store for him and his sister, he failed to notice that his own heartbeat had already stopped. The fact that he was dying has completely slipped his dying mind, and so his final thought was the most heartfelt and genuine:

“How great it is that the two of us are alive and will be able to have all those experiences!”

And it was exactly the thought he would have found to be the most fun to die with.


End file.
